Floor 1: Tutorial (1)

The light of the first torch died out, and I stopped.

The next patch of torchlight lay about four meters ahead. Which meant, in other words, that the four meters in front of me were swallowed by darkness.

There might be nothing there — or an enemy might be lurking, waiting.

Human eyes adapt to darkness given time. So I stood in silence, staring into the black, but no matter how long I waited, my vision never brightened.

Damn it. Probably another little contrivance the Tower of Trials had put in place on purpose.

No help for it. I thrust my battered longsword into the darkness and slashed wildly at the empty air. Fortunately, nothing caught on the blade.

"Hoo."

Letting out a breath of relief, I stepped forward. One step. Then another. Two steps in, I felt my foot come down on something.

Click—

A chill ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠shot down the side of my head. I ducked on pure reflex.

Ting! Something whistled — a blur grazing just above my scalp.

Goosebumps prickled up the back of my neck as I rolled forward fast. Click, click, click, click. Even mid-roll, I felt something firing off in rapid succession every time my body touched the ground. Things swept through the space I'd just vacated, a half-beat behind me.

The instant the roll ended, I kicked off the floor and hurled myself flat toward the edge of the second torch's light.

"...Son of a bitch."

My heart was hammering. I'd nearly died. One wrong move and I could have been fast-tracked straight to the afterlife the moment I entered the Tower.

Only now did goosebumps break out across my whole body. Rolling on instinct the instant I heard that click — I was genuinely impressed with myself.

Wait — how had I dodged that? My reaction speed was unbelievable. My body felt faster than usual.

Listening to the thunder of my own heartbeat, I looked back at the darkness I had just crossed. Nothing was visible. And only then did my left calf begin to sting. When I looked down, my jeans were torn, and through the ripped fabric a thin red line had been drawn across my shin.

Looking at the wound, I could tell it had only grazed me. Thank god.

'Damn it — a trap!'

Traps had never even crossed my mind. The message said to annihilate every enemy, so I'd only been picturing enemies I could see. I'd been an idiot. My thinking was far too narrow.

I raised the sword and probed the ground along the path I'd rolled through. No click. I even put my weight into the thrust, just in case — still nothing. One-shot traps, apparently.

'What the hell got fired at me, anyway?'

I needed to find out. Prodding the floor with the sword tip, I eased back into the darkness. My left leg throbbed faintly with every step. It was a mild pain, but it put me in a foul mood.

Carefully, I approached the wall and ran my hand along it — hard, cold stone. Halfway up, at about the height of my waist, my fingers found an iron rod embedded in the wall. I gripped it firmly in my right hand and pulled. It didn't come loose easily, but with a hard yank it slid out with a shunk.

Carrying the rod back toward the second torch's light, I saw it: an iron arrow gleaming faintly in the dim glow. My blood ran cold. What would have happened if this had lodged in my body?

'I have to walk more carefully. Keep every possibility open.'

Just now, the arrow had come flying out of the darkness — but it could just as easily fly at me inside the lit stretches too. I picked up the arrow and moved forward slowly, pressing the floor down with the sword as I went.

Naturally, my pace slowed to a crawl. Press the ground here with the sword. One step. Press again, one step.

The moment the tedium began to grate on me, I shook my head. Remember the trap from a minute ago.

Plenty of time left. And the message did say enemies — enemies there would certainly be. I couldn't afford to take more damage from traps. Careful. Careful.

Click— Ting!

An arrow streaked past right in front of my eyes. I stood frozen, sword still pressed to the ground. So the traps really did appear in the lit stretches too. Good thing I'd decided to check the floor with my sword even where there was light.

The fletching of the arrow embedded in the wall was still trembling. I swallowed hard and inched forward again.

The next trap appeared just as the second torch's light was starting to fade. Turtle-slow steps. The tension had wound me up so tight that my trapezius felt like it was about to cramp.

I pressed the sword down — and heard the click.

Ting!

The sound of an arrow firing. But the sound was coming from somewhere unfamiliar. From directly above my head.

Silver flashed at a forty-five-degree angle above me. On reflex, I wrenched my sword upward from the ground, blade swinging low to high.

Clang!

The deflected arrow skimmed past my left ear. The hand gripping the sword was shaking.

"Haaah..."

An unconscious sigh burst out of me. That one had truly been a matter of a page or two. If I hadn't been at maximum alertness, I never would have blocked it.

'Damn it.'

Idiot. I'd told myself to keep every possibility open, and then forgot to consider anything coming from above. Everything so far had come at me from the sides, and my thinking had gone stiff.

But separate from my stupidity, one thing was now certain: my reaction speed had improved. Normally, getting hit there should have been unavoidable. Yet I had blocked the arrow. The whole process of thinking and moving had genuinely gotten faster.

'Must be the Talent Blossoming.'

The message had said that the direction of the Talent Blossoming changed depending on the weapon you chose. And I had chosen the sword. So my physical abilities had probably been enhanced.

I checked the time deliberately. Because I'd been creeping along with traps on my mind, the distance I'd covered in forty minutes was pitifully short. Time to pick up the pace again. Let's go.

The edge of the second torch's light. Four meters of darkness ahead. I took a careful step forward —

—and my left shoulder prickled with warning.

Ting—

I twisted my body sharply to the right. The arrow tore through the exact spot where my left shoulder had been a heartbeat earlier.

"Kik! Die!"

Something black glittered as it launched itself out of the darkness. Without a moment to think, I rolled right. A grimy dagger carved through the empty air where I'd stood.

I sprang up fast and backed away two full steps. Out of the dark, at roughly the height of my solar plexus, a green-skinned monster came into view.

"Kik! Human! Lucky you! Dodging my ambush!"

My first real enemy. The goblin assassin shrieked in a voice I could have done without hearing.

The thing held a dagger; I held a longsword. I was taller, too. The only advantage I had right now was reach — so I had to make that reach count. Gripping the longsword straight-armed, I retreated five paces to open up the distance.

"Kik! Human! What an idiot!"

The moment I backed off, the goblin snatched the crossbow hanging at its waist.

Oh no. Oh, shit! Am I a moron or what? That first arrow — that hadn't been a trap at all. It had been fired from that crossbow. My mistake. I'd been so focused on the goblin's unfamiliar face and its dagger that I'd completely missed the weapon strapped to its waist.

With practiced hands, the goblin assassin loaded a bolt into the crossbow. That jolted me back to my senses, and I charged.

"Kik! Too late! Stupid human!"

With ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠three paces still between us, the goblin assassin leveled the crossbow at me. Watching its finger tighten on the trigger, I flung myself into a diagonal roll.

Thwump!

The bolt cut through the air where I'd been standing. I sprang up and thrust my sword — clang! The goblin, dagger already in hand, had batted my blade upward before I knew it.

My sword flew wide, and the goblin lunged for the opening.

Shick—!

The dagger hissed horizontally through the air as it sliced toward me. I snapped my weight backward — and the dagger passed in front of my nose as if in slow motion.

And the reward for a clean dodge: the opening came back to me. I brought the longsword the goblin had forced upward crashing down in a diagonal arc. It scrambled to leap back, but the difference in our reach was too great.

My battered longsword came down on the goblin before it could get clear.

Shrrk.

With a sickening sound, an ugly sensation traveled up through my fingertips as the blade parted flesh.

"Kiiiik!"

The goblin toppled backward, cloven by the blade. I drove the sword down into its chest again and again. Crunch — the sound of bone breaking. Splat — green blood sprayed upward.

A foul stench of blood bloomed across my nose. Blood that had splattered my face and neck slid slowly down my cheek. The spots where it had struck burned hot.

Startled by that heat, I stumbled back a step without meaning to.

"Kkeuk... Lucky... you..."

The goblin assassin rasped out its last words in a fading voice, and its eyes closed.

"Haa... haa..."

My breathing was ragged — my first real battle, I supposed. And in the moment I was struggling to calm it, my eyes landed on the goblin's corpse, torn apart and smeared in green.

I raised a hand and wiped the blood from my face and neck. My palm was soaked in warm green red.

Instantly, nausea surged up from the pit of my stomach.

"Hurk!"

I collapsed to my knees and vomited. I'd eaten plenty of bar snacks earlier, but all that came up was stomach acid. I knew something was off about it, but I couldn't stop.

"Ugh! Hurk!"

Only after a long bout of retching did I come back to myself. My throat burned from the bile.

'Get it together, Kwon Suhyeok.'

Pull yourself together. The Tower has a hundred floors. I couldn't afford to spend my nerves on a single killing like this. Get it together.

Repeating to myself that I was fine, I pushed myself up off the ground. My hands and feet were trembling. I couldn't control the shaking.

Dragging my wobbly legs forward, I forced myself to approach the goblin's corpse. The dagger and the crossbow — I needed both. Crossbows were easy to operate, as far as I knew, and with one I could handle a single goblin like that one without any trouble.

'And the sword could snap at any moment.'

I'd been jamming it against the floor to check for traps, and I'd deflected an arrow with it. Just like the description said, it could break at any time. I absolutely had to pick up a backup dagger.

Trying as hard as I could to keep my eyes off the goblin's corpse, I picked up the crossbow.

It did look a bit worn, just as described — but a goblin had been using it, so it ought to work. After checking the crossbow over, I unbuckled the belt from the goblin's waist. On it hung a dagger sheath and a quiver.

'Not bad at all.'

The quiver held about ten crossbow bolts. Good. If I aimed well, that was ten goblins I could take down.

As I buckled the belt around my waist, a wave of dizziness washed over me out of nowhere.

'Did I throw up too much?'

Or was it all the tension from the fight? I cinched the belt and turned my attention to the dagger.

The grimy black dagger was still clutched in the goblin's hand.

'Stubborn to the end.'

Even dying, the goblin hadn't let go of that blade. A green grip locked around a dagger that looked ready to crumble. The dizziness was getting worse. My vision was starting to blur.

With an effort, I pried the dagger out of the goblin's fingers.

Poison?

It's coated in poison?

Goosebumps erupted across my skin. That had been close. If that blade had cut me, I would have been poisoned.

"Huh?"

A dumb sound slipped out of my mouth. There was red blood smeared on the black blade.

The only ones here were the goblin and me. Goblin blood was green. And my blood was red.

'So... that's my blood?'

I quickly checked myself over. There was a thin cut on my left forearm.

And the wound — it had already turned black.

Damn it... when did I even get cut? Why didn't I notice? Was it because I'd been so worked up during the fight?

...Well, thinking about it, it wouldn't have changed anything even if I had known. The cut had already happened by then.

Damn it. That was it, then. I had been poisoned by something unknown.

The instant the realization landed, my mind began to fog over fast. So that's why I'd been dizzy. My thoughts were clouding.

I crumpled to the floor. Cold seeped into my cheek where it met the stone. Feeling that chill, I lost consciousness.